


I See Your Worth Now

by MrsSaxon



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, I APOLOGIZE, I speed wrote this in just a few hours, Pacing is awful, There isn't enough Annie/Abed in the world, This ship is very important to me, just some cute fluff, what was i even thinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 08:33:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3403973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsSaxon/pseuds/MrsSaxon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place between season 3/season 4? Continuity is super shaky. Abed forms a stronger attachment to Annie than he ever expected. And he's not sure what to do with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Abed liked living with Annie. He’d always known he’d like living with Troy, there had been no question. But living with Annie was a pleasant surprise.

She didn’t watch quite as many movies with him as Troy did and she wasn’t as fascinated with the Dreamatorium. But when she came home from class, she’d make something for the both of them and always reminded him to eat. And when he was watching a movie she was interested in, she’d drop everything to share it with him.

“Ohhh, is this Love Actually?” she dropped her backpack and ran over to the beanbag next to him.

“Yeah, it’s in the holiday ramp up. I figured I might as well bite the bullet early this year and get it over with.”

Annie pouted and hit his shoulder, “What do you mean? It’s so sweet! Everyone gets to be happy for the holidays.”

“Everyone except Emma Thompson. She gets cut a raw deal here and it’s never fully developed whether she and Alan Rickman recover from this or not.”

Annie frowned thoughtfully, “You’re right, but to fully develop it, you’d need another movie. These multiple storylines are only supposed to last until Christmas. That’s all that we, the audience, are concerned about.”

It was Abed’s turn to frown, but briefly, “I guess you’re right. Sometimes it’s important to sacrifice narrative perfection for time and interest. It would be interminably long if they did it my way.” His lips quirked at her and Annie smiled too.

That was the first night he’d really enjoyed the movie. Annie cooed over every couple and had such genuine enjoyment of it he couldn’t help liking it too. When Hugh Grant was forced to sing Good King Wenceslas for some eager four-year-olds, Annie joined in and he did too. She giggled when it was over, like she was embarrassed.

“Why are you embarrassed to sing? You have a good voice, Annie,” he looked up at her, bemused.

“Oh, well, y’know… most people don’t know that I still sing along with movies and-”

“I don’t think less of you for it,” Abed interrupted, shaking his head slightly, “It’s good that you can enjoy things so fully. Not everyone will let themselves.”

Annie’s smile was unsure, but her gaze was strong, confident. Abed gave those eyes an encouraging smile and that made Annie’s smile sure of itself again.

“Thank you, Abed,” she mumbled, “Well, I’d better go to bed now…” She muttered something about having to get up early to make the journey to her parents’ home and quietly shut her bedroom door behind her.

Abed stayed up, playing an old Inspector Spacetime episode, but he wasn’t really watching. He was thinking about how he had made Annie smile.


	2. Chapter 2

Over the winter break, he felt unusually tense. Normally, this was a time to unwind, marathon games and movies with Troy, forget everything they had learned over the semester, but something inside felt missing. He tried to give his all in the Dreamatorium, but the Inspector kept lapsing into brooding spells as he wondered why he felt so anxious.

“Blimey, Inspector, you’re not half focused on the Blorgon invasion plan, and no mistake. What cow’s in your cabbage, sir?” Troy nagged him, trying to pull him back into the simulation.

Abed sighed apologetically and shook his head, “My apologies, Reggie. I have not been alone during the interim of your departure and I find that… I miss Geneva.” The Inspector looked at Reggie, strangely pained.

“Geneva? What was she doing here?” Reggie pressed, surprised.

“Filling in for you, of course,” the Inspector answered smartly, “You constables are always leaving, so fleeting is your space in this time. And while you weren’t gone long Reggie, I find I’ve grown… used to Geneva.”

Reggie patted the Inspector’s back, “Don’t worry, sir, you’ll see her again soon. Why, we can pick her up at our next stop, why not?” Reggie smiled eagerly, “Your constables never forget you, you know. I’m sure she’s ready to go now in f-”

“ERADICATE! ERADICATE!” an explosion into their chambers followed by several Blorgons interrupted.

“No time for that now, Inspector!” Reggie shouted, ducking behind an upturned table.

“No space neither!” cried the Inspector, firing at welcome invaders.

Still, it had felt good to put words to how he felt. Even in character.


	3. Chapter 3

With Annie seemed to return the sunshine. Abed knew this was impossible, but if he had been directing his life, there would have been a change in the lighting and a sudden brighter tone to the soundtrack where Annie reappeared in the plot. He was careful not to make comments, ambiguous or not, about the weather with her.

But the slow tilt of the Earth’s axis back toward the sun meant that the Dean was going to prepare another, inexorable, Spring Fling. And this meant that hard-driven, busy-body Annie would have to help.

“Oh, Abed! There you are, would you help me put up these flyers for the Spring Fling? Dean Pelton promised he would give me practicum credit for Interior Design if I got it done by 3. How neat is that?” her nose crinkled as she squeaked her excitement.

Abed blinked in incomprehension at her, then looked down at the flyers in her hand, then back up at her, “Do you need someone tall?”

“Well, it does help,” she smiled her most persuasive smile, “So… you will come won’t you?”

“Why aren’t you getting Jeff to do it? He doesn’t have class now either.” He wasn’t even sure why he asked it.

Annie made a face, “Jeff? Please, no. The last time I asked him to help he had Magnitude dislocate a finger just to get out of it,” she rolled her eyes, “No, it has to be you. Now c’mon, this way!” She took his empty, hanging hand and dragged him with her through the school.

He didn’t like being touched unexpectedly, but Annie wasn’t sudden. And he didn’t like being dragged, so instead he picked up his pace to keep up with her. It was the strangest few seconds of his life, trotting with Annie as she struggled to hold onto the ungainly load of flyers and his hand at once.

They made their way through the lockers and classroom hallways, tossing back and forth puns based on the snatches of conversation. They meandered down to the cafeteria and Annie insisted on putting up a big string of flyers over the doorway. But even on a chair, she was barely tall enough to reach.

After putting up his share of the flyers on every conceivable surface, including Leonard and Pierce who were napping together, he returned to where Annie was standing on tiptoe, struggling to tape the lime green copies to the paste colored wall.

“Can’t… quite…” she muttered under her breath, catching her tongue between her lips in determined concentration as she tried to hop just high enough to tape it.

Fearing for her balance, Abed moved forward and put his hands on her waist, making sure she wouldn’t fall. He couldn’t remember telling himself to do it, it had just happened, and the next thing he knew Annie was looking at him in as much surprise as he felt he was in, “Oh… thanks Abed.”

Abed just nodded and lifted her gently up high enough to place the flyer, then lowered her to the ground.

“I… I didn’t know you were so strong,” Annie stumbled, looking away.

Abed gulped and shrugged, “You’re not that heavy.” Quickly, he grabbed the rest of her flyers and moved the chair over, “I should do the rest, probably.” Without looking at her, he continued with the flyers.

“Oh, um… yeah. I’ll see you back in the apartment,” Annie, uncharacteristically, departed in a flurry of motion instead of the usual care she showed toward arranging her cardigan and backpack before moving.

“Cool. Cool cool cool,” Abed muttered after her.


	4. Chapter 4

Arriving back at the apartment, Abed was relieved to see no one immediately around. Annie was in her room, which was fine. He felt weird around her these days and he wasn’t sure he was able to communicate anything to her right now.

Searching for solace to empty his thoughts into, he slipped into the Dreamatorium. The endless blank walls were comforting, nonjudgmental, solid. They would not change until he told them to.

“Render environment… last year’s paintball,” Abed commanded.

This was not a memory he visited all that often. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy thinking about it, it was even better than their first paintball in every way. But he had not given it particular notice until now.

Passively, he watched himself, reliving the excitement of that day. But his attention frequently strayed to Annie in a way that it hadn’t done then. Carefully, he watched the shift in expressions in her eyes; how wary she was when he found her, how hurt she was with Pierce. Annie had the strongest blue eyes he’d ever seen.

Even when he had changed costumes and switched to Han Solo, he still hadn’t paid more attention to her than just as the best fit for Leia. Watching again, he smiled seeing how hard she worked at it, how much she really enjoyed roleplaying with him, even if she wasn’t used to it. Annie had really stepped it up that day, he had known it then, but today his pride felt more personal, his fondness more intense.

He could barely stand to watch the kiss. He hadn’t appreciated it then as a kiss between him and Annie and… it hadn’t been. He’d had to remind her of that later. He wasn’t sure if he didn’t regret it now. He could scarcely remember what it had felt like himself, because it had not been himself doing the kissing, but Han. It had been good, he remembered that. But there was nothing genuine about it.

“That’s the downside of the Dreamatorium,” he mused, “As good as it is… it isn’t real.”

Annie had reminded him of that too. When she had proven that he couldn’t know how Troy and Britta would turn out before it happened. Annie was right about a lot of things.

“Did I hear someone say _down_ side?” a voice spoke up from the shadows.


	5. Chapter 5

Abed stood, alert, “Evil Abed,” he said in greeting.

“I thought we discussed this, it’s Dark Abed. Everything was feeling a little angsty over here, so I came by to check. No disasters have happened, have they? Does Jeff Winger still have both arms?” Dark Abed raised an eyebrow.

“No, no disasters. At least none yet. But it’s good you’re here, I need your help.”

“Asking for help from your evil half? Isn’t there an Inspector Spacetime episode that covers why this is a bad idea?” Dark Abed chided.

“You’re not half of me, I am me. And you aren’t evil, you’re dark. Besides, since your last visit, I installed failsafes in the Dreamatorium to ensure you could never be let out of here again,” Abed nodded confidently.

Dark Abed shrugged, “Semantics. Alright, if you’re willing to risk that my advice just might make things worse, then what can I do you for?”

“I think I’m in love with Annie,” Abed blurted.

Dark Abed’s eyes widened, “Oh. Did not see that coming. You know love is a weakness though, I wouldn’t go for it.”

“Is it though? Love can also conquer all. What about The Scarlet Letter, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the New Testament even?”

“I’ll tell Dark Shirley that one. Well, it all depends who you are in those stories, doesn’t it? Does The Scarlet Letter end well for Chillingworth? Or what about Esmeralda in the book version? Love can’t save her life. Why risk it?”

“I was talking about the Disney version, obviously. But-”

“Yes, Quasimodo still doesn’t get the girl. She runs off with that sun god Phoebus. Why be good if it only gets your heart broken, when you can just go bad?”

Abed rolled his eyes, “Please don’t use this as an opportunity for propaganda, it’s cheap, you’re a better villain than that. And is that what happened with you and Dark Annie?”

Dark Abed paused, then frowned, “I’ve never met Dark Annie. After she shot Pierce she went insane with guilt. Like I told you, the good go crazy, but the smart… well, you know the rest.”

“But what if you visited her? What if you forgave her? Wouldn’t that make her better?”

Dark Abed shrugged, “And what if it did, how would that help me? I’m evil, remember. Or dark. Whatever. My goal is to darken timelines, not brighten them.”

“Maybe that would change if you saw her smile again. Maybe you wouldn’t want to darken timelines if your own timeline wasn’t so dark.”

Dark Abed glared, “Are you trying to imply that I-?”

“Don’t deny that you miss her,” Abed smirked a small, victorious smile, “And you never got the chance to live with her, did you?”

Dark Abed just scowled.

“She takes care of me,” Abed continued, uninvited, “I don’t know if she’s doing it on purpose or if that’s just how she is. But she makes me eat, and sleep, and sometimes, even breathe. She’s predictable. I like that. I know she will always say good morning to me no matter what kind of night she had. I know that she will always give me a recap of Hospital Management, even though I never ask for it. I know that she bakes a dozen chocolate cupcakes every other Friday, but that she takes two because I can only find ten on the plate she leaves out for me and Troy. I don’t want Annie to ever leave.”

Dark Abed mustered a sneer, but only just, “And why would she go with someone like you? You know her type, long hair, flexing muscles, white charger. It’s not exactly your style.”

Abed faltered and looked down, “I know that. But I think I have to try anyway.”

There was a knock on the door. “Abed? You’ve been in there for a day and a half, I’m starting to get worried,” Annie’s voice filtered through.

“Well, now’s your chance stud. I think I’ll stick around just in case-” With a pop, Dark Abed poofed out of existence. Abed smiled, those failsafes really came in handy.

Abed opened the door in a rush and said, full of renewed confidence, “Would you like to go to the Spring Fling with me, Annie?”

Annie was so stunned after being so worried about him, she just stared, wide-eyed.

“I mean, like a date,” Abed added, lamely. After she still didn’t say anything, he carefully closed the Dreamatorium and stepped around her, “I guess not. Okay then.” He hoped he didn’t sound miserable.

“Wait! Yes! I mean, yes, I will go to the Spring Fling with you,” Annie spun in a whirl of energy like she had just been released from a timespacelock.

Abed looked up curiously, “Like a…?”

“Like a date-date, yes… I’d love to,” Annie smiled, blushing.

Abed smiled too, “Cool. Cool cool cool.” He hoped Dark Abed could feel like this someday too.


End file.
